CBS Sports to A&M: Don’t worry about ‘Johnny Cam’

CBS Sports’ production chief says he sees no reason Texas A&M should be concerned that the network will devote a “Johnny Cam” camera Saturday to Aggies quarterback Johnny Manziel during its Alabama-Texas A&M game broadcast.

A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said Tuesday he didn’t understand the need for the dedicated camera, but Harold Bryant, CBS Sports’ executive producer and vice president for production, said such coverage is nothing new.

“I don’t know why (A&M) would be irked,” Bryant said Wednesday. “It’s not there to put Johnny in a negative light. We want to show the good and the bad. He’s a star, and we want to do our best to showcase him.”

The camera will be positioned in one of the corners of Kyle Field looking toward the A&M bench, Bryant said. Unlike some so-called “slash” robotic camera positions used for special effects, “Johnny Cam” will have an operator.

Craig Silver, CBS Sports’ coordinating producer for college football, said producers will attempt to “find a balance” of how much Manziel is too much.

“Are we going to show him every time he scratches his leg? No,” Silver said. “But we want to be in position where if there’s something that we wouldn’t normally catch – an interaction with a teammate, a coach, a reaction to what is going on the field, a reaction to something the fans do — that we have it.”

ESPN devoted a camera to Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, who was coming off a 2012 knee injury, during the Monday night Washington-Philadelphia game, and Fox did the same with camera on quarterback Brett Favre when he returned with the Vikings to Green Bay in 2009.

Connecticut basketball player Maya Moore had her own ESPN camera at a 2011 game, and NBC has used “Star Cams” for its Stanley Cup playoffs and a dedicated camera for Lance Armstrong at the New York City Marathon.